Blizzard’s Overwatch League is maybe the most ambitious American esports league ever, and its preseason wrapped up this weekend. The Compete staff, with an assist from our one blogparent that we’re still on speaking terms with, breaks down what went well last weekend and what can be improved for the regular season.…

My sim Miranda, a chef, came home from work at 1 am. Her husband Marvin went outside to greet her. “Please,” I whispered at my game of The Sims. “Please don’t have sex right here.” My prayers fell on deaf ears. (NSFW warning!)

“Mission failed.” The text pops up on the screen over and over. I had seen it so many times I was ready to pull my hair out. It was the fall of 2003, and I had found my white whale, my Everest. I had three minutes to make it to the garage in Jak II, and I kept failing.

Saleem “Salem” Young, who plays the controversial Smash 4 fighter Bayonetta, clinically tore through the game’s top brawn at this weekend’s Boot Camp tournament like, as one commentator put it, a “a shark in the water.”

Saul “MenaRD” Mena ran through Street Fighter studs like Xian, Kazunoko, Daigo Umehara, and Itabashi Zangief to make it to this weekend’s Capcom Cup finals. But to win it all, he’d have to beat the man who beat him earlier—Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, who also is the 2017 Evo champion.

]]>battle for the stonesmarvel vs capcom infiniteguy lovecelebrationSun, 10 Dec 2017 22:54:00 GMT1821168434Minions Win The Game In League of Legends All-Star Matchhttps://compete.kotaku.com/minions-win-the-game-in-league-of-legends-all-stars-mat-1821164880

In game 2 of last night’s All-Star match between Korea and China, it seemed the latter had just secured a 2-0 sweep of their opponent, downing all five opposing team members. But the Chinese all-star team forgot about the sixth man: the minions.

In the first game of last night’s ROG Masters grand finals, Team Empire was playing back from a huge deficit. Their barracks and towers were down, and their all-important ancient was wide open. How did they come back? By going straight for the enemy’s ancient.

Blazt was the last man alive for Ground Zero during its match against Luminosity at the Call of Duty World League Dallas stop. But while his opponent passed over him once, unnoticed among the dead around the bomb site, a double-check quickly led to a Luminosity win.

This weekend’s Battle For The Stones allowed players who had won past Marvel vs.Capcom: Infinite tournaments to activate “infinity gems.” In the case of Justin Wong, this meant the right to change his opponent’s controls before a game.

2017 continues to wind down but not before some of the year’s biggest tournaments play out in full. This weekend features the annual culmination of endless Street Fighter tournaments with Capcom Cup 2017 as well as lots of action in the world of competitive Call of Duty and Counter-Strike.

Most trophies take the shape of a cup, goblet, or maybe the side of a mountain. For this weekend’s Battle For The Stones, Capcom has opted for a giant replica of Thanos’ gauntlet, complete with light-up infinity stones.

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is recuperating from his heartbreaking loss at this year’s world championships by crushing lesser opponents. After tepidly accepting the 2017 Game Award for Best Esports Player, he faced off against poor Álvaro “VVvert” Miguel Martins in a one-on-one League of Legends All-Star match.

Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis is one of the best Street Fighter players in the country. But he barely cracked the top-64 at last month’s North American Regional Finals Last Chance Qualifier, and he’s only ranked 20th on the Pro Tour headed into this weekend’s Capcom Cup. Why is the 2017 CEO champion going to have such a…

Yesterday marked the official beginning of Overwatch League, Blizzard’s official multi-million dollar pro Overwatch proving ground. To celebrate the occasion, a San Francisco bar called Brewcade played a couple preseason matches on a big screen.